Matt Reeder

A 16-year-old girl who smothered a seven-year-girl and slashed at her body with a Stanley knife was suffering from delusional beliefs about people around her not being human, a judge has been told.

The teenager who killed Katie Rough in York in January may have been trying to prove the youngster was not a robot, as she had “irrational beliefs” about how people “may not be human and may be controlled by a higher and hostile force”, a court heard.